Ray Allen

It’s important to remember that Kevin Garnett never seriously considered going to Boston until Ray Allen joined the Celtics. On top of that KG’s lukewarm feelings for Wally Szczerbiak are so well known that I don’t even feel compelled to cite a source. However, out of respect for Buzz Bissinger I will. Not once. But twice. Still I do wonder  if the Celtics would be better with Delonte West and Szczerbiak. Obviously it’s a moot point. But it’s something I’ve thought about. Can you tell Boston lost game 6?

Paul Pierce

Three stats stand out from Pierce’s game 6 line: He finished 5-15 from the field, 4-4 from the line and turned the ball over six times. That’s too many turnovers and not enough free throws. Also the sooner Pierce accepts that he is not a real rival to LeBron James (who is?) the better. I’ve always thought Pierce’s ability to hit some mid range jumpers to keep teams honest and drive to the hoop were his biggest strengths. And the latter often leads to free throws.

Kevin Garnett

I listened to Max and Grande’s call of this one for the first three quarters because of work. As you can imagine I was not that productive. And I was interested by Grande’s take on Kevin Garnett’s playing time. Apparently KG gets so fired up that Doc Rivers can’t play him for an entire quarter. In fact Rivers has gone out of his way to manage KG’s minutes from day one. I immediately thought, “Wait isn’t it his 13th season? Shouldn’t he have figured that out by now?” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: nobody associated with the Celtics, outside of Lucky who needs this team to play well to score, has more riding on this season than Garnett. He is the best player on Boston’s roster. Hands down. And when he misses a four-foot shot late or gets whistled for a travel, his critics are bound to circle like vultures. That’s not my intention. It’s hard to blame the series on him when everyone else has been inconsistent. Has KG even had a bad game yet? Regardless he needs a 25+ points, 15+ rebounds game on Sunday.

Go to this old Bill Simmons article, scroll down to "Question: What was the most disturbing subplot of the season" and check out what he said about Dick Bavetta. It's intriguing. I'll leave it at that.

Doc Rivers looked great when he played Glen Davis Wednesday night. Not so much tonight. It's hard to give Rivers credit one game and blame him the next. Regardless Davis did stay out there too long in the 4th.

Boston's final offensive possession was beyond awful.

I understand trying to go for the steal with 23 seconds left. But how realistic is that? Why not force the Cavs to win it on the line and conserve some clock as well?

LeBron James is an excellent basketball player. He does a lot of great things on the court. However, the over the top praise for everything he does is grating after a while. Is it necessary to go on about his presence of mind to call a timeout instead of getting a 5 second violation? That's something guys pick up by high school.

Hey Rajon Rondo, what's going on right now?

Delonte West's burst of good play and Wally Szczerbiak's deep three down the stretch were tough to take.

I caught the 4th quarter live and still have to go back and watch the rest of the game. Give the Cavs credit. They hit baskets when they needed to, had stretches of tenacious defense and overall played great team basketball. That was a tough loss to handle and I actually feel very similar to how I felt after Game 4 of Round 1. The scary thing is that Cleveland is coming together as a basketball team that is obviously better and deeper than Atlanta. Some other brief thoughts:

- I did not enjoy watching Daniel Gibson attack Sam Cassell at the start of the fourth quarter. That coincided with a number of truly awful Celtics offensive possessions.

- The "Celtics can't win a road game" storyline is warranted and slowly killing my enthusiasm. 

- There was a stretch in the 4th quarter where both teams played outrageous defense. Everything was contested and each team was forced to shoot jumpers they could not make.

- I can't even link to LeBron's cruch time dunk but will most likely see it one million times over the course of the next year. And rightly so. It was impressive.

- For all his struggles last night, including an ill-advised 3 with Boston down 76-73, Paul Pierce gave it his all on the defensive end.

- Back to Boston...

Coming later (most likely tomorrow): What's in a name? - A look at Ray Allen vs. Delonte West/Wally Szczerbiak.

I'm not frustrated with the Celtics losing this one. It would have been nice to see them pull it out. But it's tough to beat a team on the road when said team is up against the wall. Game 4 is the big one. There is a big difference heading home 2-2 against Atlanta and doing so against Cleveland. And that difference is LeBron James. Other reactions:

- As I said I'm more or less okay with the loss. But I don't like the fact that Boston was never really in it. The Celtics never managed to put the fear into the home town crowd. That would have made me feel a lot better.

- Ben Wallace is not the Ben Wallace of old and he's certainly not worth $15.5 million. To put that in perspective that's over $2 million more than LeBron makes. However, Wallace still contributes and he did some excellent things tonight.

-  Delonte West  (21 points, 7 assists), Wally Szczerbiak (16 points) and Joe Smith (17 points) were also key. That hurt.

- Take everything good I said about the Celtics defense after Game 2 and apply it to the Cavs tonight. Great performance. And those two blocks LeBron had on Rajon Rondo were outrageous. Meanwhile, didn't it seem like the Cavs move around on offense a lot more? At points it seemed like they had 2-3 guys running off picks. And yes it's not possible to have 3 guys running off picks at one time

- Here's the deal with LeBron. He's so big, strong and fast that when he gets up a head of steam it's nearly impossible to stop him. No one in his right mind would step in front and take a charge. Credit Pierce with doing that. And trying to wrap him up like James Posey did is a recipe for disaster. Furthermore, LeBron has to do what he has to do. But I find his act is getting old a bit. For example if he and Eddie House are both in the air there is absolutely no way House can knock him down. I really believe this. It seems like LeBron took a page out of Dwyane Wade's book. Of course LeBron has 6 inches, 34 pounds and boat loads of muscle on Wade.

- Ray Allen was invisible in the first quarter. That's not good.

- As Mike Gorman said, if the Cavs are 10-19 from beyond the arc the Celtics are in trouble.

- LeBron also shot shot much better from the outside. That was key.

- Hey the Pistons, Hornets and Lakers all lost after taking the first 2. It's nothing out of the blue. Although the Celtics did get beat down. Like I said before, Game 4 is huge.

- Man Andderson Varejao is easy to hate.

- I thought Bennett Salvatore's charge call on KG and quick T on Doc Rivers shortly thereafter were petty calls. And that kind of stuff early on can make a difference.

- The C's looked a step slow all night.

- Memo to Paul Pierce - Don't leave your feet and look to pass. Bad decisions.

- At times the Celtics overpassed. And a few times it hurt them.

- Credit Cleveland and its coaches with making the necessary adjustments. The ball is now in Boston's court.

- In the back of their minds the Celtics have to think about Detroit going up 3-1. If Boston really wants/expects to win it all it can't continue to go 7. It would be nice to see the C's close it out in 5, 6 at the most.

- Watch film, stay loose and come out fighting on Monday. That's it for now.

Cavaliers Blogs to Check Out
Cavalier Attitude 
Waiting for Next Year
And One
Fear the Sword - This one dropped off the face of the blogging world shortly after the blockbuster trade. The same goes for Hey Larry Hughes, Please Stop Taking So Many Bad Shots.

Starting Lineups
Rajon Rondo vs. Delonte West
Ray Allen vs. Wally Szczerbiak
Paul Pierce vs. LeBron James
Kevin Garnett vs. Ben Wallace
Kendrick Perkins  vs.  Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Schedule Notes
Cleveland closed out its first round series Friday night and had three days to prepare for the Celtics. Boston of course went the distance with Atlanta and did not wrap up round one until Sunday. I’ll give Cleveland the edge but it helps that Boston is home.

Season Series
1. The Celtics lost the first game of the season series in overtime. This game was memorable for several reasons:

- Ray Allen played 49 minutes. At the time this was a big deal. Of course as the season progressed his minutes came down. But that was a little frightening. He also took 25 shots, which was easily his high for the season. In fact Allen only took 20 shots two other times and that has not happened since January.

- While Rajon Rondo finished with 7 rebounds and 6 assists, he was also atrocious from the field (1-9). This game single handedly prevented people around the country from recognizing how much Rondo can bring to the table until the third Pistons game.

- The Celtics should have gotten it done down the stretch as Ray Allen missed a few free throws late and Paul Pierce could not come through on a possible game winner.

- LeBron dropped 38 points and was huge from the line (14-15). That’s the kind of stat line I’d hate to see as we move forward.

- Drew Gooden was on fire – 24 points (11-15 from the line) and 13 boards. Big Z also chipped in 15 and 15.

2. LeBron sat out the rematch less than a week later and the Celtics won a pretty dreadful Sunday afternoon game, 80-70.

3. LeBron James – 33 poinrts, 12 assists, 9 boards and 5 steals. That coupled with Kevin Garnett’s absence led to a 114-113 victory for Cleveland. On the bright side the King had 5 turnovers.

4. The Celtics handled the new look Cavs in one of those games where the final score (92-87) made it look a lot closer than it actually was.

Long story short the home team won every game.

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Lance Allred – The Cavaliers signed him to a couple of 10-day contracts and then eventually brought him in for the remainder of the season. However, Allred only saw action in three games and I’d be incredibly surprised to see him out there. Having said that Allred is a lot more interesting than many end of the bench guys because he had an unorthodox childhood (huge understatement), has 80% hearing loss and should probably hate Rick Majerus. Hat tip to Hardwood Paroxysm for the previous link. Also check out HP for an interview with Allred. Seriously the brief poker game anecdote is awesome.

Devin Brown – Since entering the league in 2003 he has played in Utah, Denver, San Antonio (twice), New Orleans and now Cleveland. That journeyman persona was only enhanced when Brown joined the squad shortly before training camp. Every team in the league has a guy like Brown. He is the player that does a lot of little things to help the team win, is appreciated by the coaches and is not well known beyond the home fans. You think he was a part of Will Malice’s Unsung Player Day? Of course he was. Embarrassing aside. Occasionally I’ll watch a Cavs game and for a split second I’ll think Brown is LeBron James. The same thing happens with Adonal Foyle and Dwight Howard. We’re talking a split second here and I’m definitely not proud of it. I should probably keep that to myself actually.

Daniel Gibson – The former Texas Longhorn came to prominence when he caught fire in game 6 of last year’s Eastern Conference Finals against the Pistons. Gibson finished the game with 31 points and five 3-pointers. That shooting prowess was on display again at the Rookie/Sophomore game over All Star Weekend in New Orleans. Gibson did battle injuries this season, is more of a 2 than a 1 and will probably hate the Cavaliers during the off season, as is the custom with Cleveland’s recent restricted free agents.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas – Big Z averaged 14 and 7 and put forth a huge effort – 21 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks - against the C’s back in February. While I respect his game I also like his slow, deliberate place. That’s how Boston prefers to play. Finally I’m always amazed by how much he towers over everyone else on the floor.

LeBron James – He rose to prominence in the era of AAU, high school stars jumping straight to the pros, blogs, ESPN News, a zillion magazines and an oppressive amount of hype. And yet starting sometime after last year's All Star Break you could make the case that the hype has not been enough. Does that ever happen? Seriously he averaged 29.8 points, 9.5 rebounds and 7.7 assists and was an afterthought in the MVP race. That’s outrageous. On top of that he may be the strongest guy in the league. I don’t need to write too much more because he will be a huge topic of conversation throughout the series. But I’ll close with this. If you watch a few James interviews, post game press conferences or really anytime he speaks you'll notice that he references his role as the leader of the Cavs a seemingly disproportionate amount. Watch for it.

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